The UK's largest health charity has drafted in its first agency to propel campaigning initiatives into the spotlight and entice people to its gyms.

Nuffield Health has a national network of private hospitals and health and fitness centres and provides corporate health programmes. It has recruited Kindred for a one-year retained account.

The charity is seeking to boost coverage of its wellbeing campaigns, and use the increased recognition to drive consumers to the 65 UK-wide fitness and wellbeing centres.

The first such campaign, Health Map, uses data from 80,000 health MOTs – 45-minute personal health checks – carried out at its centres. The aim is to warn women of the health risks of obesity, which include breast cancer and infertility.

Nuffield, which had a turnover of £575m in 2011, began its expansion into the gym sector with the acquisition of Cannons gyms in 2008. Its in-house comms team has grown from four to 13 in the past year.

According to head of comms Josephine Perry, having both hospitals and fitness centres means the charity ‘is much more wellbeing-focused, which is a new area for the UK – we are the only organisation that joins the two up’.

Perry said: ‘Using the results of our health MOTs means we can highlight where there are big health issues across the country. We needed an agency that understood our integrated approach to health and fitness.’

Kindred client service director Anastasia Scott added: ‘We have some great ideas and are looking forward to working with the team to convert these into strong results in the media and in terms of brand recognition.’